Wichita eagle., 1887-04-10
THE CABLE BUSINESS.
HOW CHICAGO SENDS MESSAGES TO
EVERYBODY AND EVERYWHERE.

Wiring the Antipodes-The Four Cor
ncrs Of tue Earth Brought Close To-
understanding Cipher Dispatches-Of
Interest to the Public.
1.-THE general public hes no idea of the
extent Of the cable business in Chicago"
said Business Manager FELTON,, of the West
ern Union Telegraph company, in response
to questions put to him by reporter.
'Nor have many people an adequate con-
ception Of tho vigorous manner in which
cables and land lines have been spread over
the universe he added. "There are now,
/ baIicve, eight cables between North Amer
lea and Europe. They average 1900 miles
long, and in all the world l understand
there are something like 100, GOO miles OF
submarine telegraph lines. South America
is connected with Europe by a cable from
Lisbon, Portugal, to Pernambuco, Brazil, a
distance of 1888 nautical miles. This is
the longest cable. Two cables connect
Florida with the island of Cuba, and one
extends from Cuba to Aspinwall on the
ISthmus, and another to Rio Janeiro. From
Trinidad, the most southerly island Of the
West Indies, a cable follows the coast line
of Brazil clear down to Montevideo in
Uruguay, touching at many ports. There
are sixteen cables crossing the North sea
and tho straits of Dover Two cables con-
nect England and Portugal, and one cable
connects England and Spain. Nearly a
score of cables lie beneath the Neditcr-
rancan. One extends the entire length
of tie Red sea. from Sucz to Alden, thence
under the Arabian sea to Bombay, across
Al D., ,c 70
and Singapore en- the Malay peninsula,
thence north under tho Gulf of Siam and
China sea to Hong Kong and China. This
is known IS the Indo route in the east, and
extends to Yokohama and Yeddo, Japan.
"a cable under the Sea OF Japan connects
NagasaIie with Viadivostok, one of the
most remote points in Siberian Russia.
from SINGAPORE a cable touches Java and
Sumat-a end reaches Australia. Even
the Island of Tasmania, lying south of Aus
t.alia, is connected with the rest Of the
world by cable, and so is New Zealand. The
great African cable, completed some years
ago, etxends FROM Alden, Arabia, to Natal,
one of the extreme southern ports of Africa.
So, You SEQ. the four corners Of the earth
have been brought pretty close together by
the great cables which lie, some of them,
nearly four miles beneath the surface OF the
ocean. The only thing now necessary to
complete the electrical circuit of the world
is to lay cable under the Pacific ocean,
and understand that a project is on foot,
under the able leadership Of Cyrus w.
Field, to connect Japan and San Francisco
via the Sandwich Islands"
MESSAGES SENT EVERYWHERE
Oh, how "a
mentioned used by Chicago people!"
eyes, indeed. There is not cable III the
world that is not frequently burdened with
messages from this city. 1t is probable
that there is not one telegraph office in the
world to which we have not transmitted
MESSAGES, either for residents Of Chicago or
for persons living in our territory. l some
times wonder where all the cable messages
come from. Ii an Office were to be opened
on tho coast OF KanschatEa, or in lower
Patagonia, or up some place near the north
pole, it is probable that in less than twenty
four hours some Chicago man would want
to send MESSAGE there's The cable bust
ncss Of the office is something enormous,
and Just now it is increasing at tho rate OF
700 or eco MESA res weekly. This is due to
the fact that the rates have been so much
reduced ON messages to England, france,
and Germany, it being with these coun-
tries. Of course. that the bulk of our business
is transacted Cable messages are carried
very cheap nowadays-only 10 cents word
to German, and only II to France and
Cnlgand See how cheap that is.
''If YOU are business man, often using
the cables to communicate with other bust
ness people, you use a cipher. Besides,
your name and address, and the name and
address Of your correspondent also, are reg
istered at the cable office, So that in tho mes
sages one word sufices for the address, and
one for tho signature. One cipher word
may carry your whole messa3e-for In
stance. the word orange may mean, 'ad-
wise you to sell January wheat and buy
pork For the word in the address you pay
II ccnts-atldrcsscs and signatures all count
il cable work-for the signature IL cents,
end for the cipher word or the message it.
self Il cents more. That makes only 30
cents for G rlessaGe from Chicago to Lon
don or Paris Why, message to Ashland,
Ohio, or Anol,a, Mimi, or Baral 90, Wis,
or New Orleans would cost you moro
money. 4 very large portion of or cable
Business is done in cipher
OF INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC.
caro- there any other cable regulations OF
interest," to the public"
"Tcs Any word containing more than
ten letters counts aS two words. No punc-
tuation marks are sert, unless requested
and p2i.l for Oh is counted one letter. CT
pher words must b, in one or all of these
lar,-ua.- EOS: English, French, German, Ital-
ian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish or Latin.
Of course, vra cannot handle messages in
Chinese or japanese. The Chinese residents
Ut Chicaro send many messages to China,
but they are all in English. We send all
of our cables IN English characters, or,
rather, il their tclegraPhic symbols. The
Plantations a-o made. If at ali, in tho for
eign Offices. Cipher messages are often
conglonlcrat, OF three or four languages.
"In one day You might see many mes
cages to England, France and Germany
about corn, wheat, provisions, metal, toys,
silks, wines, millinery. chemicals, ma
chincry, everything; to Cuba about tobacco
and cigars; to the Cape of Good Hope
about ivory. barks and diamonds; to
Arabia about dates and palm oil, to Java
about sugar; to Switzerland about watches;
to Siam about furs and hides-to all parts
Of The world, concerning almost every arti-
c,e known to commerce. Commercial use Of
cables Is developing rapidly because OF the
reduced rates, and also on account OF the
growth Of Chicago's business interests. The
Atlantic cables coull not begin to handle
tho transatlantic business were it rot for the
sact that some Of the wires are worked By
tie duplex method and others by the quad
rup.ex- Cuadrriplexing q wire, you know,
luadruples its capacity, two men sending
eacd way simultaneously. Chicago Her
AID
An Unfinished Play.